Capitals WJC review

By Sandor Roberts

January 12th, 2005

Washington Capitals WJC Review

Four Washington Capitals prospects were involved in the 2005WJC. A review of each player follows.

ChrisBourque

In his first WJC, Chris Bourque showed a ferocious intensitywhile at the same time demonstrating his impressive offensive skills. Bourquewas flanked on the U.S. top line by Patrick O’Sullivan and Drew Stafford forthe majority of the first two games, but was subsequently moved to a line withDan Fritsche and Kevin Porter. Even though he is most comfortable buzzingaround the top of the goaltender’s crease, Bourque did get some time at theright point, among other positions, on the power play. Bourque drew a fewpenalties, but his shooting accuracy needs to improve.

Early in the game versus Belarus, Bourque threw a heavycheck along the boards against Alexei Savin, but landed awkwardly on his leftleg. He tried to continue playing, but he was in street clothes by the end ofthe second period. Bourque had an MRI before the U.S. was scheduled to play theCzech Republic, and it revealed that he had a medial collateral ligament strainin his left knee which meant that he would be unable to play for the remainderof the WJC. While the U.S. team had other issues to deal with over the courseof the tournament, Bourque’s presence on the ice was missed.

Team

GP

G

A

P

PIM

+/-

United States

3

1

1

2

0

-4

OscarHedman

For the first three games of the WJC, Oscar Hedman playedalongside Johan Fransson on Sweden’s third defensive pairing. Suddenly,starting with the game against Slovakia, Hedman was moved up to the first unitwith Nicklas Grossmann (his partner in the fifth/sixth game versus Finland wasOla Svanberg). Hedman saw a lot of ice time in all situations over the finalthree games. He is a good skater and passes the puck well, but he was completelydisinterested when it came to getting involved in the offense.

Team

GP

G

A

P

PIM

+/-

Sweden

6

0

0

0

0

+3

AlexanderOvechkin

Alexander Ovechkin, participating in his third WJC andsporting the captain’s “C” for Russia, was one of the shining stars of thistournament. An electrifying talent, he has the combination of size, skill, andspeed to make fans jump out of their seats.

In the opening game of the tournament versus the UnitedStates, Ovechkin had an explosive end-to-end rush and fired a hard wrist shotfrom below the right faceoff dot that cleared Al Montoya’s right leg pad bymere inches to sneak inside the left post. Ovechkin, skating on Russia’s firstline with Enver Lisin and Dmitri Pestunov, recorded six shots in the openinggame. Ovechkin scored two goals in three consecutive games as he helped leadRussia to first place in Pool A and the gold medal game.Of his seven goals, three were power playtallies.

Consistently double-teamed, Ovechkin’s dazzlingpuck-handling allowed him to create space and get his shot off. Opponents foundout that the only way to contain him was to be extremely physical. He averagedover 20 minutes of ice time a game, and saw plenty of action on the power playand penalty-kill units.

Ovechkin finished third in tournament scoring with 11 pointsand tied for the most goals with seven. He got plenty of accolades as he wasnamed the Best Forward (directorate award), and was selected as one of theforwards on the Media All-Star Team.

Team

GP

G

A

P

PIM

+/-

Russia

6

7

4

11

4

+6

MikhailYunkov

Mikhail Yunkov is a solid, workmanlike two-way forward andon a Russian WJC team blessed with a tremendous amount of skill, he had to showhis value on the fourth line. He was average on faceoffs as well as hisdefensive zone coverage. Playing on a line with Denis Parshin and RomanVoloshenkov, Yunkov was somewhat effective in his role, but it was difficult todetermine if he shelved his offensive game for the good of the team, or if hedoesn’t have a lot of offensive skills at his disposal. He should learn plentyfrom this experience.

Team

GP

G

A

P

PIM

+/-

Russia

6

1

1

2

0

+1

Copyright 2005 Hockey’s Future.Do not duplicate without permission of the editorial staff.